NEW YORK -- Danny Duffy would later describe Wednesday's game as a "punch-for-punch" effort between the Royals and Yankees, but in the end, New York had the last swing.

After 11 walks issued by seven Royals pitchers and a two-run ninth-inning rally from the Royals offense, Kansas City was handed a 6-5 walk-off loss that evened the series at Yankee Stadium ahead of Thursday's finale.

"When you're on the losing side of that kind of game, it makes the entire team better," Duffy said. "We've been through something. No one hangs their head. We get an uppercut and we come back swinging every time."

The roller-coaster story of Wednesday's game is perhaps best told through the ups and downs of the Royals' win probability chart, provided by Statcast. The Royals held a 2-0 lead after Ryan O'Hearn's second homer in as many days came in the first inning, but it would be far from over.

Bottom of the fourth inning: Frazier's double
Win probability: 45.8 percent
Here's where things got dicey. The Royals issued 11 walks, starting with Duffy's three in the second inning. He reached his pitch limit in his first start back from the injured list at 42 pitches after two hitless innings, getting out of the bases-loaded jam by striking out Rougned Odor.

In the fourth, the walks came back to bite Carlos Hernández. Miguel Andújar drew a two-out walk, followed by Clint Frazier's game-tying double.

Hernández gave up another walk to Odor, but he got out of it with a flyout to limit the damage.

Bottom of the seventh inning: Barlow's strikeout
Win probability: 50 percent
After Josh Staumont threw 1 1/3 innings and allowed a walk with one out in the seventh, Scott Barlow came in to try to get the Royals out of it. He got the second out by striking out Aaron Judge, but then issued back-to-back walks to Gary Sánchez and Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees' win probability here crept up to 61.6 percent.

But Barlow forced Luke Voit to chase three breaking balls to end the inning and leave the runners stranded.

"You get into a position where you get yourself backed into a corner, and you get matchups you're not a big fan of, they're going to pitch smart and not give in to the opposition," Matheny said. "Scott did a nice job continuing to make pitches. Dug down and found some really good chase breaking balls."

Top of the eighth: Santana's homer
Win probability: 75.3 percent
Carlos Santana immediately rewarded Barlow and the Royals by homering on the second pitch he saw from Zack Britton, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead. Santana hit it a Statcast-projected 432 feet, and it delivered a huge momentum swing in Kansas City's favor.

All it needed to do was hold on.

Bottom of the eighth: Brentz's double-play ball
Win probability: 81.1 percent
Reliever Jake Brentz issued the Royals' 10th walk of the night to lead off the eighth, but he worked himself out of that trouble with Andújar's double-play ball. The Royals' chances at a win soared here.

"We have an opportunity to take advantage of that," Matheny said.

But Brentz walked Frazier on four straight pitches. And finally, all those walks the Royals escaped turned into one that would haunt them.

Bottom of the eighth: Odor's two-run homer
Win probability: 15.1 percent
Brentz left a fastball over the plate for Odor, who crushed it over the right-center-field wall.

"We had 11 [walks] on the day," Matheny said. "Those days aren't normally going to work out well when you give out those free bases. It's amazing we were still in the position that we were to put that game away."

Top of the ninth: Two-run rally
Win probability: 85.4 percent
Here was the Royals' punch back. Michael A. Taylor singled up the middle against Aroldis Chapman, and with two outs, Whit Merrifield roped a single to right field that put Taylor on third. The Yankees intentionally walked Santana, but that came back to bite them: Sebastian Rivero drew a game-tying walk.

Then O'Hearn beat out an infield single to third base, giving the Royals a 5-4 lead.

"Against any backend bullpen, if you're able to scratch across a couple of runs late, it's a great accomplishment," Matheny said. "Let alone like a guy like this that doesn't give up much."

The Royals felt good about who they were sending out to the mound for the bottom of the frame in Greg Holland, who had secured his fifth save of the season Tuesday night in almost the exact same situation holding a one-run lead.

Bottom of the ninth: Voit's walk-off
Win probability: 0 percent
The Royals had a 42.3 percent chance of winning even after Sánchez's two-strike home run off Holland tied the game. But then Stanton singled on a sharp ground ball to right field and pinch-runner Tyler Wade took second on a wild pitch. Holland attacked Voit with five sliders in a row, three of which the Yankees' first baseman fouled off.

Holland wanted to try a different pitch to put Voit away, but it was Voit who ended it by smacking a curveball to the left-field wall for the game winner. Holland wanted to throw the ball in the dirt, either getting in a 2-2 count or seeing Voit swing over the top of it. It came in at the bottom of the zone.

"I thought it was pretty close to hitting the dirt, but it must not have been close enough, because he hit it pretty hard off the wall," Holland said. "The at-bat got kind of long and I wanted to change it up. Left it too much over the plate."